Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum chairman Mehran Ali Shah on Wednesday said that the federal government must refrain from processing licences for deep-sea vessels under a policy to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around 20 miles off the coast of Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
He was addressing a provincial conference organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal No. 14, which is about conserving and sustaining the oceans, sea and marine resources. Ali Muhammad Mastoi, director general marine fisheries, Sindh government, presided over the conference.
Civil society representatives, researchers, media persons, youth, fishing and peasant community representatives from Karachi, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Jamshoro, and Hyderabad districts participated in the provincial conference.
Shah said that the expansion of fishing into the deep sea was a grave threat to the livelihood of small fishers and marine ecology, and if the provincial assemblies had not approved the deep-sea fishing policy, then it was also a violation of the constitution. Mastoi said the use of harmful nets in inland, as well as marine fisheries in Pakistan, was destructive to the sustainability of fish reserves.
He said that the Sindh government appreciated the PFF’s advocacy and lobbying efforts and community mobilisation for discouraging the use of harmful fishing nets.
The conference’s participants also highlighted key recommendations regarding sustainable small-scale fishing, conservation of mangroves, and other themes which are directly linked with the effective implementation of SDG No. 14. The PFF would document the recommendations and share them with the government as well as non-governmental actors, the conference was told.
Nasir Panhwar, an environmental expert, Professor Mushtaque Mirani, a writer and researcher, Ishaque Mangrio, a social activist and journalist, Dr Aneela Memon from Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) were also among the speakers.